Lifeboat Foundation

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) released today a comprehensive analysis of the largest three-dimensional map of the universe ever created, filling in the most significant gaps in our possible exploration of its history.

“We know both the ancient history of the universe and its recent expansion history fairly well, but there’s a troublesome gap in the middle 11 billion years,” says cosmologist Kyle Dawson of the University of Utah, who leads the team announcing today’s results. “For five years, we have worked to fill in that gap, and we are using that information to provide some of the most substantial advances in cosmology in the last decade.”

Continue reading “Astrophysicists fill in 11 billion years of the universe’s expansion history” »

Circa 2016

One way of realizing controlled nuclear fusion reactions for the production of energy involves confining a hot plasma in a magnetic field. Here, the physics of magnetic-confinement fusion is reviewed, focusing on the tokamak and stellarator concepts.

Omg levitating cars o,.o!

In this vehicle, the diamagnetic fields principles are applied to obtain a hovering and propulsion effect which makes low cost, friction free and zero pollutant emissions transport media. This is done using a special combination of electromagnetic and the natural diamagnetic susceptibility in all The physical effect of this is an air gap between the surface and the vehicle. The height of levitation has a direct relationship with the material used as floor surface; since all materials have diamagnetic susceptibility factors. Also, the power on the diamagnetic field is a key for the levitation and propulsion effect. All these factors make this prototype vehicle an easy maneuverable one, since there are almost no inertial forces in the system.

The second most distant quasar ever discovered now has a Hawaiian name.

Astronomers have discovered the second most distant quasar ever found, using the international Gemini Observatory and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Programs of NSF’s NOIRLab. It is also the first quasar to receive an indigenous Hawaiian name, Pōniuāʻena. The quasar contains a monster black hole, twice the mass of the black hole in the only other quasar found at the same epoch, challenging the current theories of supermassive black hole formation and growth in the early Universe.

Continue reading “Monster Black Hole Found in the Early Universe – 1.5 Billion Times More Massive Than Our Sun” »

Scientists at the University of Waterloo played a big role in a 20-year global project to make a 3D map of the universe, which will help improve knowledge about the expansion of the universe.

Welcome to The National, the flagship nightly newscast of CBC News.

Continue reading “Waterloo scientists help create 3D map of the universe” »

Circa 2008

Industrial motors can spin at a head-spinning 250,000 revolutions per minute. But a new matchbook-sized motor runs circles around the competition.

Researchers from ETH Zurich’s Department of Power Electronics created a drive system in cooperation with its industrial partners that exceeded 1,000,000 rpm in tests.

Next year’s Mercedes EQS electric luxury sedan will be one of the longest range EVs on the market, the first real thorn in Tesla’s side.

HONG KONG (Reuters) — China launched its military build-up in the mid-1990s with a top priority: keep the United States at bay in any conflict by making the waters off the Chinese coast a death trap. Now, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is preparing to challenge American power further afield.

China’s shipyards have launched the PLA Navy’s first two Type 075 amphibious assault ships, which will form the spearhead of an expeditionary force to play a role similar to that of the U.S. Marine Corps. And like the Marines, the new force will be self-contained — able to deploy solo with all its supporting weapons to fight in distant conflicts or demonstrate Chinese military power.

New battery technology developed at Berkeley Lab could give flight to electric aircraft and supercharge safe, long-range electric cars.

In the pursuit of a rechargeable battery that can power electric vehicles (EVs) for hundreds of miles on a single charge, scientists have endeavored to replace the graphite anodes currently used in EV batteries with lithium metal anodes.

But while lithium metal extends an EV’s driving range by 30–50%, it also shortens the battery’s useful life due to lithium dendrites, tiny treelike defects that form on the lithium anode over the course of many charge and discharge cycles. What’s worse, dendrites short-circuit the cells in the battery if they make contact with the cathode.